On April 22nd, 2021 (Earth Day 2021) residents of Midway Woods and representatives of local environmental organizations gathered (via Zoom) to discuss efforts to maintain and restore Dearborn Park and Shoal Creek in Midway Woods.

 

 

Here’s a quick recap of that meeting, along with some links that may help you get even more enjoyment out of Dearborn Park and Shoal Creek:

 

DEARBORN AREA NATURE ALLIANCE

 

The Dearborn Area Nature Alliance (DANA), represented by Kristen Jordan Daniel, spoke on their efforts to eliminate Japanese chaff flower, English Ivy and other invasive plant species from the park.

 

• DANA organizes work sessions twice a month throughout the year to help clear out chaff flower, English Ivy and other invasive species. 
• DANA has put together a video about their efforts to eradicate chaff flower from the park. You can check that out on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7-jPLjPFl8
• Kristen mentioned the Seek app — https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app — which can be downloaded onto your phone and used to help identify native and invasive species in the park (it can help ID animals as well).
• DANA helped compile a list of plant and animal species that have been spotted in that park, as well as some information about the invasive species that can be found in the park. Check out that list here.

 

How to get involved with the Dearborn Area Nature Alliance:

 

• Come on out for one of DANA’s park work days! Mask up, don some gloves, bring garden saws, clippers and shovels if you have them and come out to one of their park work days:
  
• Sundays in May — 5/16 and 5/30 (rain dates on 5/23 and 6/6)
• Saturdays in June — 6/12 and 6/26 (rain dates on 6/19 and 7/3)
• Subscribe to the DANA email list to find out where the group will be gathering and what they’ll be tackling
• Email Dearborn30030@gmail.com to get on the mailing list and be informed of upcoming work days and other DANA news.

 

FRIENDS OF DEARBORN PARK

 

Friends of Dearborn Park, represented by Kevin Polite, spoke about their efforts, over the course of the past 15+ years, to improve the park and establish park fixtures such as the playground in the park. 

 

Friends of Dearborn Park typically holds park clean-up events once or twice a year. Their latest project was the planting of all of the flowers lining the Deerwood Drive entrance to the park.

The Friends group is affiliated with Park Pride — https://parkpride.org/, the Atlanta-area nonprofit organization working with communities all over Atlanta to improve parks by providing programs, funding, and leadership to create more and better greenspaces, and also works with Trees Atlanta — https://www.treesatlanta.org/ — on park improvements.

Here’s a video showcasing the past 10 years worth of work that the Friends Group has conducted in the park — https://videopress.com/v/W5sYsyZE 

 

How to get involved with Friends of Dearborn Park:

 

Check out the Friends’ website at https://dearbornpark.org/ where park-related information and events are posted. 

The group’s Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfDearbornPark

 

 

 

RIVERS ALIVE AND SHOAL CREEK CLEAN-UPS

Rivers Alive, represented by Steven Blackburn, focused on Shoal Creek.

 

• Rivers Alive and the Midway Woods Association typically sponsor a Shoal Creek clean-up activity once a year, but Rivers Alive has other stream and river clean-up events throughout the year.  Find out more at https://riversalive.georgia.gov/ 

 

Steven brought up the need for water monitoring to know more about the waters of Shoal Creek nearer the source of the creek than is monitored today. That monitoring is done through a program conducted through the Georgia Adopt-a-Stream program, the state’s volunteer water quality monitoring program. Volunteers select a site along a local stream, wetland, lake, or estuary to adopt and then regularly monitor their site and submit monitoring data to the state online database. Types of monitoring include chemical, bacterial, macroinvertebrate, visual, and amphibian monitoring.

How to get involved with Rivers Alive:

 

• Find out about upcoming events that Rivers Alive is sponsoring and participating in at their website — https://riversalive.georgia.gov/ 
• Information on becoming a volunteer water monitor can be found at https://adoptastream.georgia.gov/

 

 

MIDWAY WOODS ASSOCIATION ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE

 

The Midway Woods Association also has an environmental committee. Stacie Wilson talked briefly about those efforts. The association works with Rivers Alive to organize the Shoal Creek clean-up sessions in the neighborhood, and also organizes clean-ups in some of the non-park areas of the neighborhood in need of a bit of TLC.

How to get involved with the Midway Woods Environmental Committee

 

• To find out when these clean-ups will be taking place, request to be added to our email mailing list by send your email address to midwaywoodscommunications@gmail.com
• Continue checking out this website for announcements of upcoming events
• Join our private neighborhood Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/midwaywoodsneighbors 

 

 

Other local groups helping to facilitate park and creek maintenance, upkeep and restoration …

 

• Friends of Shoal Creek formed in 2019 to protect the natural and community resources of Shoal Creek, including the wildlife and habitat in the surrounding Shoal Creek watershed. You can find them on the web at https://www.friendsofshoalcreek.org/ — or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/foscdecaturga/. (There’s a great overview of the Shoal Creek watershed that can be found at https://www.friendsofshoalcreek.org/about-shoal-creek/.) 

 

Keep Dekalb Beautiful is another organization that works to protect, enhance and maintain the county’s streets, rights of way, roadways, intersections and county-owned properties, through continuous beautification initiatives, roadside enhancement activities, public education and resident engagement. They help with roadside litter clean-up projects, rain barrel workshops and other activities. Find out more at https://www.dekalbcountyga.gov/beautification/keep-dekalb-beautiful

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There were some questions that came up that we weren’t able to get answers to during the meeting. 

 

Q: Is it safe to swim in the creek? Is the creek safe for kids and dogs to play in? (Is swimming allowed?)

A: In general, it is a good idea not to play in urban streams a few days after a significant rain event.  

 

It’s hard to prove a more specific answer to that until we’ve measured the bacteria (E.coli) several times in the stream to  get an idea of the normal conditions.  Ideally, we’d measure several times during periods of no rain and again after a significant rain event that increases stream flow.  This will give us an idea  of what the bacteria numbers are in Shoal Creek. 

Bacteria levels in the creek were measured once last year near Oldfield Rd. and the bacteria numbers were pretty low (dry event).  

 

Q: What are the main sources of bacteria in the creek?

A: Sources of fecal coliform bacteria in urban areas may include stormwater runoff, pet waste, warm-blooded animal waste, septic tanks, leaking or broken sewage pipes (often where the pipes cross the stream), manure from backyard chickens and sewer overflows. These are some examples of common sources.

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Thanks so much to Steven, Kevin, Kristen and Martha Miller (who also spoke a bit about the Dearborn Area Nature Alliance) for talking about their organizations and to everyone who was able to attend! We hope everyone enjoyed it and was able to learn a bit to boot. These are all great organizations, well worth investing your time in, and a great way to meet some neighbors while getting your hands dirty with them.